


abstracted

by serpentineshadows



Series: in a world, on your own [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Implied Dimension Travel, Implied OC death, Original Devil Fruit, Original Island, excuse for a bnha crossover in the future, gratuitous exposition, no beta as usual, probably not canon compliant bc they're all together but this is the new world, someone eats a devil fruit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 19:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentineshadows/pseuds/serpentineshadows
Summary: No pirate has ever survived the forest on Mahogany Island...until the Strawhats. The townspeople throw a banquet in thanks, but something goes wrong.





	abstracted

Monsters lurk within the Torch Woods on Mahogany Island, the townspeople say. “A zombie,” a wizened old man who looks like a zombie himself insists. “No, no, don’t listen to him,” his wife interrupts. “It was a werewolf for sure. I saw it change into its human form with my own two eyes!” “C’mon granny, you can’t see that well now. I’m telling you, the thing had wings,” the butcher declares, waving his knife around.

Evidently, none of them can agree on what kind of monsters lurk in the woods, but the general consensus is that they do. As such, whenever visitors from faraway lands come to Mahogany Island, the townspeople clamor around to warn them of the dangers in the Torch Woods.

Unfortunately, the pirates that have reached this point on the Grand Line are either fearless or arrogant. Rumors of monsters don’t scare them; instead, they head into the forest to assert their strength to the townspeople, affronted by the idea that _they_ would be cowed by mere gossip about monsters.

None of them ever return, which is why the townspeople continue to warn the visitors that come. And still, fueled by pride, pirate after pirate is lost to the Torch Woods.

“It wasn’t always like this,” the older townspeople reminisce. “In the past, the Torch Woods provided us a bountiful harvest. We must have angered the gods with our greed, and this is how we must atone!”

One man alone knows the truth behind the appearance of monsters in their once-beloved forest, and he keeps it locked in the depths of his heart, the secret a constant pressure that makes it hard to speak. Saw Kratis is a man of few words, a timid man, never willing to look anyone directly in the eyes. The years have taken their toll on him: his back is forever bent, his eye bags only growing in size.

The other townspeople take pity on him. “He’s the one who saw the first monster,” they whisper to their children, who point at Saw Kratis and wonder at his gaunt appearance. “Hasn’t been the same since.”

Saw Kratis is the only man in the village who doesn’t have fishing duties, something he is eternally grateful for. He can’t swim, and he can’t learn to swim. It’s an affliction he doesn’t understand, one of many things he doesn’t know. The one thing he knows is: somehow, he’s the reason behind the monsters that come and plague Mahogany Island.

Occasionally, Saw Kratis goes into the forest. Each time, his hands shake more than usual, sweat pours down his face, and his heart beats so fast he’s afraid it’ll burst. There’s no real reason for him to visit the forest other than the fear in the other townspeople’s faces, the kindness they have given him despite the fact that all their problems are _his_ fault. He’s not really changing anything, but he’s compelled to return to the scene of his crime, over and over again.

Saw Kratis walks a path he’s walked a million times before, leading him up to that dark slash in the air, glowing blue. The slash that he created, somehow, by waving his arms in the air. The slash that he’s seen monsters crawl out of. It exists because of him, so maybe that’s why he’s fearless about observing it, approaching it.

That fearlessness leads to his eventual disappearance, like the many pirates before him.

 

“I’m hungry,” Luffy complains, as he has for the past hour. He spent most of the time slumped against the railing, wishing for fish to appear, only perking up slightly when he heard they were approaching an island.

Now, Luffy is slouched against the figurehead, scanning the entire island as they start to dock. He spots a forest, which makes his mouth start to water, imagining the bears or alligators or tigers that must be wandering around in there. Stretching out one hand behind him, Luffy grabs for Zoro and leaps off the ship.

“Let’s go catch some food, Zoro!” Luffy says as he’s dragging Zoro along the ground, ignoring his grumbling.

“Wait, Luffy, don’t run off!” Nami shouts, but it falls on deaf ears, and they disappear into the forest faster than the townspeople can chase after them.

 

“You might never see your friends again!” one woman wails, clutching her handkerchief tightly. “There’s monsters in those woods; no one has ever come back alive!”

Nami sighs. “They’ll be fine.” A chorus of voices rise up to state their opinions, but Nami shushes them with a glare. “I _said_ , they’ll be fine. They’ll be sorry that they just ran off when they get back though.”

(“You’re so charming when you’re threatening people, Nami-swan!” Sanji swoons, but she ignores him, too busy devising a plan to make those idiots regret their decisions.)

And come back they do, dragging a bunch of beat-up grotesque-looking monsters with them. Luffy places them right in front of Sanji, looking like a smug cat that’s brought back a dead bird to its owner. “Sanji, can you cook these?”

Sanji nudges one of the monsters with his foot, turning it over, a look of utter disgust on his face. “You want to eat _these_.”

Before Luffy can cheerfully say “yes,” the townspeople swarm around him and Zoro, lifting them up into the air and cheering. Both Luffy and Zoro are confused, but when one of the townspeople offers to cook up a feast for their saviors, Luffy readily agrees.

 

“It’s not much, but it’s all we could salvage from the woods,” the leader of the town says, gesturing to the banquet they’ve laid out for the Straw Hats. “Please enjoy yourselves.”

Luffy immediately digs in, dragging Usopp and Chopper into an eating competition. Franky cheers them on as he chugs on his own supply of cola. Beside him, Brook shies away from the townspeople, all of whom seem wary of him, sure that he’s one of the monsters from the Torch Woods. Robin laughs at their antics while Nami looks on in disgust. Sanji goes to help with preparing more food, the town’s cooks unprepared for the bottomless pit that is Luffy’s stomach.

Sitting to the side, Zoro takes a bite of the fruit concoction in front of him. He gags at the taste and chooses to chase the food down with some beer. Zoro sets the bowl to the side, swatting away Luffy’s hands.

“You don’t want it, Luffy,” he grumbles. “Tastes disgusting.”

Luffy’s undeterred though, eventually managing to grab a handful and shove it into his mouth. There’s a disgusting spray of food, which makes everyone except Luffy lose their appetite.

“What did you do, marimo?” Sanji growls, picking up Zoro’s bowl. He takes a bite and grimaces, refusing to spit it out even though he desperately wants to. “How the hell does this taste so bad?”

“Tastes like my Devil Fruit did,” Luffy says around all the food he’s still shoving into his mouth. “Gross.”

“What?” numerous people ask, Chopper’s voice a scared squeak and Zoro’s a menacing growl.

“Luffy, tell me you didn’t swallow it,” Chopper shouts, starting to panic. “Oh god, I don’t know what to do if someone eats two Devil Fruits!”

Robin pats Chopper’s head gently, gesturing toward the disgusting half-eaten chunks of food on the table. “I don’t think Luffy ate it, or he would have dropped dead by now.”

“Oh, thank god,” Chopper sighs, relaxing against Robin.

“But I think that might be because Zoro ate it instead,” Robin continues, looking Zoro in the eye.

Zoro leaps up from the table and starts sprinting toward the woods. A few seconds later, he ends up at the table again, panting heavily. “Where the hell’s the coast?”

“Don’t tell me you were trying to jump into the ocean,” Nami says from where she’s sitting, the undercurrent of a threat in her otherwise calm voice.

“How else am I supposed to know if I ate one?”

“Only you, Zoro. Only you would eat something that’s maybe a Devil Fruit and not know for sure if you ate one,” Nami sighs. She points in the opposite direction of the forest. “The coast’s that way. It’s a straight line, and don’t you dare jump into the ocean.”

 

Zoro jumps into the ocean and confirms that he’s now a Devil Fruit user. He has to be pulled out by Franky, and after he’s done expelling the sea water from his lungs, he looks up into Nami’s furious face.

“Should’ve known you wouldn’t listen,” Nami begins quietly. “Glad your directional skills have managed to improve enough for you to walk in a straight line though.”

**Author's Note:**

> i cant name things so i asked my friend to do it for me, and she is a Very Big fan of torchwood rn
> 
> there is no plot so far, but worry not. this is like a prologue for something i have not written yet: zoro gets horribly lost and ends up in the bnha 'verse. when? where? i dont know yet but that's why i wrote this lol. lets not get into the angst and other consequences that would come w zoro eating a devil fruit, im here to write some fun bs


End file.
